When you ask top digital marketers the secret of their success and how they can have a wider reach in marketing businesses online, their response will likely include social media. Social media is widely used worldwide, and there are currently about 3.6 billion users with a projection of over 4.4 billion in 2025. One of the widely used social media app is Instagram, and it is used by about a billion people In the world. This means for your business that you need to be on Instagram to take maximum advantage of the numbers it boasts of.
It is safe to say that having a lack of presence on Instagram isn’t good for your business as it limits the number of people you can convert to customers. So, if you are looking to boost your sales, you should take advantage of Instagram and its features. One of the prominent features for Instagram has to be a relatively newly created Instagram Story. It is usual for you to wonder how a story that doesn’t last more than seconds will make an impact. Don’t worry. In no time, you will have the ability to harness the power of Instagram story faster than a UK college student can see assignment help UK.
Instagram Stories
Instagram story is a creative feature created by Instagram that allows you to share memorable things that interest you on Instagram for 24 hours. This feature can allow you to share pictures, text and stickers. As mentioned earlier, the story only lasts for 24 hours unless it is downloaded, archived or saved in Highlights.
Instagram is very strategic about the inclusion of the story feature as it is the first thing Instagram user would see when they open the Instagram app. Without even mentioning how it can help you develop your business yet, you can already imagine the kind of attention your business will get from just being the first thing a user sees.
Instagram story is also a delight to use by its users because of its enthralling design. Once you click on an account, you wouldn’t know to stop until you have consumed many stories. .
Instagram and your Business: The Potential of Instagram Stories.
First off, Instagram cares about your business, and it has included business insights. This insight feature can allow you to determine the number of people who watched your story by giving you the statistics of users of went on to watch the next story instead of exiting.
You already know, as we have mentioned above, that more than a billion use Instagram. Out of this number of users, 500 million use Instagram stories a day and lit of the 500 million Instagram story user, 200 million of them check the stories of at least a single business per day. That is not all. Over 130 million users interact with posts about products. These statistics are going to favour you as soon as your business starts harnessing the power of stories.
You can now see the potential of Instagram stories and how using them for your business purposes can significantly boost your customer base, thereby developing your business.
How Can Instagram Story Videos Help to Develop Your Business
How Instagram stories can develop your business would be approached from the angle of the benefits you stand to gain when you start using Instagram stories to promote your business.
- Boosts Your Reach among Instagram users
One of the many benefits of Instagram stories that come to mind is that it can help create awareness for your business and products. This awareness is not only limited to your customers but to prospective customers too who can come to know about you via your Instagram stories. Prospective customers who are not your followers can find out about you through stories because of the discoverable feature on Instagram stories which permits non-followers to view stories.
Also, Instagram stories permit the use of hashtags and tagging other people, including your business partners, if any. This can help your business even more if you collaborate with Instagram influencers to post about your business on their own stories.
- Increased Engage more with your current users
Your business stands to develop when you can interact with your audience on your business posts or any of your general posts. There are several ways with which your Instagram story can be used to interact with your audience.
- Instagram Stories Poll
This is one of the ways through which you can increase engagements on your posts. One prejudice consumers have about businesses is that they are nothing more than cash cows to those businesses, but this all changes when they find a company that cares genuinely about them. Polls are the way to show that as you are not asking your customers or prospective customers for money directly. If you sell clothes, you can create a poll around different clothing items that go along with each other. Your customers feel like you need them to decide while you are also making sure they see how extensive your wares are.
- Gauge Reaction Using Instagram Stories Emoji Slider Stickers
This is like a question poll, but you don’t want to be using the poll all the time now, do you? It would become boring and repetitive that way. You can spice things up using the emoji slider sticker feature of the story to gauge reactions to your product or promo offer.
- Instagram Stories Question Sticker.
This question sticker is trendy among Instagram users since Instagram introduced it. You can use this to invite your audience to join in question and answer sessions.
- Instagram Stories Quiz Stickers
You can use these quiz stickers as a form of promotion or competition among your audience. The competition could be a quiz about your company, its operations and there would be a reward at the end. It could be either financial or giving out to the winner some of your products.
- Instagram Story Countdown Sticker
The above can be primarily used to drive up excitement for promos, sales, promos and any other kind of excitement. It would help you give your audience what to look forward to and allow their anticipation to build up for whatever event you have planned.
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- Use Instagram Stories to create fun behind the scene content.
Using Instagram stories for this purpose would allow your audience to feel very connected to your business. You wouldn’t be that business that is out to get their money. You would be that business that cares about them.
- Give your audience tips on your product use.
Your tips on your products and their packaging would drive your audience to notice the particular product. You can also show them how to use it or use the opportunity to show why the product is best for them. Doing that helps in increasing audience engagement with your brand.
- You can keep your audience up on the latest events of your industry and your business.
It does not have to be boring. You can mix things up here by uploading stories about your employees having fun, playing pranks while informing jr audience about your company and new happenings.
- Tag Instagram influencers on your post and have them post your products.
Instagram Stories provide an excellent way for your business to work together with Instagram influencers.
- Use your stories to announce promos and competitions.
- Personalize Your Instagram Story.
Doing all of the above would be more impactful when you have your design for your stories. This would allow your audience luck out your posts even before they see your username or click on your story. To achieve this, have a set of colour scheme and stick to them, have unique brand fonts, use readily available Instagram story template, an image filter that will peculiar to you and use branded GIFs. You can create branded GIFs using Giphy. Apply for Giphy’s branded gif after posting a few GIFs from them. Wait a few weeks and you would have your own branded GIFs. Don’t forget to use stickers (people love this).
There are many ways to use Instagram stories and the above are not exhaustive in this regard. You have to let your creativity soar at this point. There other ways you can get engagement through your Instagram Stories. While they are incredibly useful, our suggestions can also inspire you to create your own unique way of engaging your audience.
- Instagram Story Converts Audience to Clients
Apart from the Instagram story bringing engagements for you, it can help you convert the audience it brings to you as your customers. So, from your story, you get clients that will purchase from you.
Other Ways To Use Instagram Stories To Develop Your Business.
- Use hashtags.
Hashtags are beneficial when you are trying to create awareness for your business. When you post your story, include hashtags in your stories and witness how you would experience an increase in your organic search. You can even generate a hashtag drive for your business. So, if you have not been using hashtags for your business’s Instagram post, now is a good time for you to start.
- Tag Your Stories with your Location.
It would help if you used this to create more awareness for your business as when people search for a particular location, your story lost would be attached to that location. Do you now see why it is advantageous to tag your location?
Other Ways to Use Instagram To Develop Your Business
- Respond to Instagram mentions
It would be best if you keep in mind that the goal of using Instagram and Instagram stories is expanding your reach among Instagram users. One of the signs of achieving this goal is getting interactions from your audience. Respond to people mentioning you, no matter how trivial the purpose of mentioning you may seem. Don’t forget people are prejudiced against you and think you are all about their money. Positively responding to their mentions helps disabuse them of that notion.
You take it up a notch by reposting the posts of those who mention you. You are creating a feeling of being unique for that person, and other users would also seek your attention so they can have a share in that feeling.
- Use Instagram Live.
Instagram live allows you to connect with your audience in real-time. You can use the countdown feature on Instagram to create an awareness of you going live, so you would have a larger turnout. You can motivate your audience to be worth their while as there are gifts for lucky watchers of the live.
Live increases your interactive potential as your audience would get to ask you many questions. This would deepen the connection between you and your audience.
Author Bio: James Vines is a blogger and professional content writing expert at write my essay uk. His blog consists of lists of the best films divided by genre and for different moods. Find her on Twitter.
